Originally Posted by zephyr17

Never, ever schedule a connection to another mode the same day as arrival on any North American long distance train. Always build in an overnight layover unless you are prepared to eat that airline ticket and pay high, last minute walk up fares for its replacement.

While most of the time Amtrak is at most only a few hours late, you could be the lucky punter whose train is 14 hours late. I've been on trains more than 8 hours late more times than I care to remember.

Between San Antonio and LA the "fresh air" stops where you can get off and walk around are Alpine, El Paso and Tucson. Not sure about San Antonio-Dallas, but I am pretty sure Austin is a least. I know Ft. Worth is.

They do boot you off in LA as soon as the train arrives. And there is a big schedule pad into LA so if the train is otherwise on time it will be early into LA. Within the last 3 months it has arrived as early as 4:25 am, and off you go.

I like the idea of reversing direction and going LA-Dallas for a couple reasons. First, you don't have to get up and get off at zero dark thirty. Second, since the Sunset/Texas Eagle leaves LA at 10 pm, you could easily do a same day flight to LA to catch it.